Mark Twain Elementary- The Guys' Side
by Allie2
Summary: Another Fabulous Five piece- this one takes place during 6th grade at Mark Twain Elementary, with POVs from Randy Kirwan, Scott Daly, and Mark Peters.
1. Default Chapter

MARK

"Oops, sorry!" A female voice cried suddenly. 

I jumped to attention as I realized I'd run into someone outside of the cafeteria. 

"No, no, my fault! Sorry," I said quickly, mad at myself for not paying more attention. I quickly picked up the books that the person had dropped and straightened up again, looking around to see who I'd run into. I gulped as I realized it was Jana Morgan! I'd had kind of a silent crush on her since kindergarten and she was one of the last people I wanted to crash into and make myself look like a klutz. 

"Thanks, Mark," she said, taking the books and smiling at me. "I wasn't watching where I was going." 

"That's ok, me neither," I replied, shooting her my best smile. 

"Jana! Come on!" a voice called from down the hall. 

"Coming!" She called back, then rolled her eyes at me with a grin. "Beth. See ya around, Mark." 

"Bye," I said quickly, aware that she probably hadn't heard me in her rush to join her best friends on the playground. Oh well. I was used to being invisible to Jana. I mean, we'd been friends a long time, but I was sure she'd never think of me as, like, anything more than that. She was nice to me and everything, but she just didnt seem interested in any sense except that I was a member of her 6th grade class. She never really payed much attention to me unless we, say, bumped into each other like to today. But then, I thought as I made my way outside, Jana was the most popular girl at Mark Twain- why would she be interested in someone like me? 

"THERE you are," someone said from behind, making me jump. I turned around to see Randy Kirwan, one of my best friends, walking towards me from the water fountain next to the bike rack. He was casually tossing a baseball in one hand as he came over, a pleasant smile on his face. Not a surprise though- about him smiling I mean. Randy's one of those people that ALWAYS seems to be smiling. He's just a really friendly person I guess. Not that I would say *I'm* not friendly, but I would feel weird walking around grinning all the time. But on Randy, it seems totally natural. 

"Oh, hey," I replied, as we slapped palms. "I got held up by the cafeteria." 

"You got held up by the cafeteria?" Randy laughed. "What'd it do, pull a gun on you?" 

"Oh, very hilarious," I groaned, rolling my eyes. "I mean, I got held up near the cafeteria. I ran into someone." 

"I see," Randy nodded. "Did you happen to run into Daly while you were at it?" 

Daly is our other best friend, Scott Daly. The three of us have been inseperable for years. I shook my head. 

"Not since lunch." I grinned. "I know what we can do, though- just look for a group of girls and we'll find him." Scott's turned into quite the lady's man this past year. 

Randy groaned. "You're probably right." He shook his head with a grin. "I think we're losing him, man." 

I laughed, then punched him in the arm. "So I guess that means YOU'RE totally against girls, right?" 

He grinned at me. "Well, not ALL girls, I guess. SOME are ok..." 

"Oh, like Taffy Sinclair, you mean? Your girlfriend?" I teased. Taffy Sinclair is the probably the best looking girl in our class and she has the biggest crush on Randy, it's really kinda funny. It wouldn't be so bad for Randy, actually, if Taffy wasn't such a snot. But there's no denying that no matter how good looking she is, she's really stuck on herself and that's a big turn-off. 

"Get real!" Randy cried, giving me a disgusted look. "Don't even say that! I guess Taffy's *ok*, but there's no way I'd EVER go out with her." Randy paused. "She's not very nice to some people." 

I bit back a smile. Another thing you have to know about Randy: he's one of those genuinely nice people who can't understand why anyone would ever dislike someone else. I'm waiting for the day when he finds someone who isn't nice to him and he ends up disliking that person and sees what it feels like. Right now I can almost safely say I've never seen Randy meet a person that he hasn't become friends with. 

"Yeah, I know, I was just kiddin' you, man." I replied as we started across the playground towards the baseball diamond where a bunch of guys in our class were situated. "But seriously, ARE there any girls you think are ok?" I added, just for fun. 

Randy gave me a look. "Of course! There are a lot of nice girls in our class." 

I rolled my eyes. "Humor me, Randy. I mean someone who's, like, NICER than everyone else." 

He shrugged and didn't say anything in return, just started turning the baseball around in his hands. I figured that meant I wasn't going to get an answer and was starting to change the subject when he nudged me in the elbow. 

"Promise you won't tell anyone," he said quickly, in a low tone. I looked at him with interest. Did he actually like someone? That would be something if he did- Randy wasn't one of those people who are real obvious about their feelings, so I could understand it if I hadn't noticed him crushing on someone.

"Of course I promise," I replied indignantly. "I'm your best friend, aren't I?" 

"I know that," he sighed. "But I just don't want too many people to know. That's when things get spilled, you know?" 

I nodded. I could definitely see his reasoning. "Well?" I prodded. "Who is it?" 

He glanced around the playground as if looking for someone and suddenly smiled. "Over there," he said, nodding his head discreetly. I followed his line of sight towards the far side of the schoolyard fence where a small group of girls were standing, talking and laughing together. There were five of them, and anyone who saw them would know right away that they were all best friends. Actually, they even had a name for themselves- The Fabulous Five... and Jana Morgan was kinda like their leader. That's another reason she's so popular, I guess. Everyone knows who The Fabulous Five are. 

"Well, which one?" I asked. Then I grinned. "No wait, let me guess- you like ALL of them, right?" 

He gave me a withering look. "Nooo, just one of them. Well, I mean, I think I like her. You know, like like her... not just as a, you know, as a friend." 

"Well, WHO?" I demanded loudly, and he glared at me as if afraid someone would overhear. 

"Shh," he snapped, glancing around nervously. Then he looked back at the girls and got that smile on his face again. Then he looked back at me, a concerned look on his face. "Promise you won't make fun of me." 

"You know I won't do that." I hesitated, then added, "and if you tell me who YOU like, I'll tell you who I like." I instantly regretted saying that- there's no way I wanted to admit to liking Jana... nice as Randy was, I wouldn't be surprised if he actually laughed at me for it. But hey... if it got Randy to fess up....

"Really?" he said, looking surprised. "I didn't know you liked anyone." 

"Well, I didn't know you did either," I pointed out. "And I STILL don't..." 

He kinda laughed, then coughed, then said quickly, "Jana." 

It so took me by surprise that I almost fell backward. Did he read my mind? Or no, wait... that's who HE liked. I almost couldn't believe it! Of ALL the girls in the class...!

"Jana Morgan?" I managed. 

He rolled his eyes at me. "Well, duh. There's only one Jana I know of, at least at Mark Twain." Then he looked at me worriedly. "You don't think I'm nuts, do you? I know she's really popular and everything and probably never thinks twice about me, but I dunno..." his voice trailed off and he gazed back in her direction. 

I tried not to sigh too loudly. Well, at least I wasn't the only one on that line of thought. Truthfully, I wanted to tell Randy that I DID think he was crazy, that Jana probably barely knew who he was- but I couldn't do that to my friend... one of my BEST friends. He technically had called Jana first, (WHY hadn't I spoken up?!), so I couldn't do much now. And besides, of all the guys in the class, Randy was the best known (I'd say), so if Jana thought twice about anyone...

"No, I don't think you're nuts," I said trying to sound as upbeat as possible. "No, you're not nuts at all. I mean, yeah, she's really popular, but so are you, man. I'd say you're about the most popular guy here... so I guess you guys would really, like, go together really well." 

He looked at me hopefully. "You think?" he shook his head. "I don't know about that for sure, but... well, that would be so cool. I've kinda been like, watching her lately and stuff," he said quieter, and I thought his face looked a little red. "And she seems so nice. She says 'hi' to me sometimes, too." He paused a minute then gave me kind of a silly smile. "She's really cute, isn't she?" 

I looked over at Jana. She was kind of sideways to us, but I didn't really have to see her right now to answer that question. I knew her looks so well that I could almost see her in my mind perfectly. And she WAS definitely pretty. She's petite, with short, kinda curly brown hair, big brown eyes and long dark eyelashes. 

I nodded slowly. "Yeah, she is cute." Then I grinned at Randy. "But not as cute as Taffy, right?" 

Randy made a face at me, then said quite seriously, "Actually, I think she's prettier than Taffy. I mean, she's so much nicer..." 

"Mm hm, right..." I teased, trying to keep the mood light. I didn't even care if Randy got mad at me for teasing him about Taffy, I just didn't want to keep talking about Jana anymore. Because I knew if we did, I'd have to keep encouraging him about it... and frankly, that was pretty hard for me to do.


	2. Randy

RANDY

I was actually glad that I ended up telling Mark that I had kind of a crush on Jana. It was nice to be able to talk about it with someone, for one thing. I hadn't really been crushing on her that long, but it was long enough that I was uncomfortable keeping it a secret. NOT that I wanted anyone else to know except Mark and maybe Scott. Both are my best friends, but I wasn't sure I trusted Scott as much as I did Mark right now, since lately Scott had been talking to the girls a lot more than usual, and I was afraid he'd slip and tell one of Jana's friends that I liked her. *That* was all I needed! I guess eventually I'll want Jana to know how I feel, but not yet. *I* wasn't even sure exactly how I felt right now, just that she made me feel different than any other girl I knew did. 

The next morning after I told Mark about me sort of liking Jana, Scott was the first person to come up to me on the schoolground, approaching me while I wheeling my bike into the bike rack in front of the school. 

"So, what's this about you and Jana?" He said with a grin. 

I looked at him in shock and stopped locking my bike. 

"What are you talking about?" I said quickly, trying to recover my composure.

Scott leaned against the building, still smiling. 

"Mark told me. You like Jana," he said matter-of-factly. I sighed. I should have known Mark would tell Scott. Oh well. There went being extra-cautious about the whole thing. 

"You make it sound like we're having an affair," I complained, straightening up and shifting my backpack. "I just sorta like her- she doesn't even know." 

"Well, why don't you tell her?" Scott asked. 

I gave him a look of horror. "Are you crazy?" I cried, then realized how loud I was talking and lowered my voice. "Get real, Scott. I'm not going to tell her! At least not yet..." 

"What are you waiting for?" Scott questioned, raising his eyebrows. "Valentine's Day? I sure hope not, cause that's months away, and you never know- she might be going out with someone else by then."

"Yeah, who?" I retorted, raising my eyebrows at him. I couldn't think of any guy right off hand from our class who would have the nerve to ask a girl out. I guess Scott most of anybody, but I knew *he* wouldn't ask Jana out.

"Well," Scott said slowly. "I know for a fact that Curtis Trowbridge has a crush on Jana." 

We both looked at each other a moment then burst out laughing. No offense to Curtis because I really like him- he's a genius and kind of intimidating, yet a nice guy all the same- but he is most definitely NOT Jana's type. Scott was right about one thing, though- Curtis definitely liked Jana. It was obvious from the way he talked about her all the time and how he was always making conversation with her. That made me sigh. How come I couldn't do that? Just go up and talk to Jana, I mean. How did Curtis get so brave? 

"But seriously," Scott insisted. "You should tell her, Randy. What do you have to lose?" 

"Um, like, a *lot*," I groaned, shaking my head as we headed towards the school entrance. "For one thing, my pride. What if she just ignores me or laughs at me? Or-" I stopped. I really didn't want to go into what I was feeling with Scott, or any guy for that matter. I just wanted to figure things out myself and in my own time. If Scott or anyone else pushed me into anything, I knew I'd probably end up doing something really stupid and regret it a million times over. 

"Ok, fine, but if she ends up with someone else, don't come complaining to me," Scott sighed. I just shook my head, hoping to dismiss the subject. We met up with Mark at our lockers before going to our classroom, and thankfully, Mark didn't mention anything about our conversation yesterday and I almost had my mind off it all when out of the corner of my eye I saw a few girls coming towards us on their way to class. It didn't take me long to realize that it was Jana and two of her best friends, Beth Barry and Christie Winchell. I started to turn a bit so that I could maybe smile at her when she walked past, then immediatly decided that that wasn't a good idea- not with Mark and especially Scott standing right there. If they saw me smiling at Jana I'd probably never hear the end of it. 

By then the girls were so close that I could catch bits of their conversation on the latest history assignment and what a pain they thought it was. (Amen to that!) I wondered if Jana had seen me- I figured she must have- and fought back the urge to glance her way. 

"Hi, Scott. Hi, Mark. Hi, Randy," came Beth's loud voice from almost behind me now, making me jump. 

"Oh, hi," Scott said casually, turning to smile at the retreating girls. Mark copied him, and so I figured it would look dumb if I *didn't* at least smile, too, and at the same moment I did, Jana was glancing at me, and our eyes locked for a second. She gave me a quick smile, then ducked her head slightly as she and her friends continued down the hall, not even giving me a chance to really smile back. Darn! Nice going, Randy, I scolded myself, resisting the urge to sigh. Jana probably thought I was totally rude now, especially since Scott and Mark had both said 'hi' and I barely even smiled. I was such an idiot- there was no way I'd ever be able to get up the nerve to talk to her now. 

When I turned back to Scott and Mark, I realized they were both grinning at me. 

"What?" I said defensively, crossing my arms over my chest. 

"Nothing," Mark said quickly, shooting Scott a look. "It's just... never mind." 

"Oh, come on, Randy!" Scott said, as the bell rang and we headed for Ms. Wiggin's classroom ourselves. "You *know* you like her! None of this 'I *think* I do'. Admit it- you have a crush on her." 

"This was exactly the reason I didn't want to let on at all," I snapped. "Because I knew you guys would never give it a rest." 

"We're your friends, Randy," Mark said. "We just want you to be... happy." He added the last word quickly, and stared at the floor for a minute. 

"I AM happy, and I'd be even happier if you guys would let me do this my way," I responded. 

Scott rolled his eyes. "Yeah, and your way being try to ignore her unless an opportunity arises and then not even smile back when she looks at you? Well, that's a sure-fire plan," he said sarcastically. 

I felt my face turn red. Whoa, he'd been a lot more perceptive then I thought. 

"I- I just didn't have time to do anything. She turned away before I got the chance," I mumbled. 

"Well, all I can say is if you ever want to hook up with her, you'd better do something about it, instead of beating around the bush."

"It's not that easy," I sighed as we neared the 6th grade classroom. "I don't even know what to say to her."

"How about 'hi, how are you doing today, Jana? I like your sweater'," Scott said, rolling his eyes again. 

I threw him a look. "But I told you- what if she laughs at me? Or ignores me?"

"I don't think she'd do that," Scott replied, shaking his head firmly. "In all honesty, I think she likes you, Randy. She didn't smile at me or Mark when they walked past. She was looking at you the whole time, even before Beth said hi." 

"Really?" I said, trying not to look too hopeful. 

"Really. I think she definitely likes you," Scott insisted, turning to Mark. "Don't you think so, Peters?" 

I realized Mark hadn't said anything for awhile and glanced across Scott to make sure he was still walking with us. It wasn't like him to be so quiet. 

He was still there, though, and jumped slightly at the sound of Scott's voice. 

"Hm? Oh, yeah." He looked towards me and nodded. "I agree with Scott- I think she likes you, too, Randy." 

"See for yourself, Randy," Scott said, lowering his voice as we started to enter the room. "Look at her when we go in and see if she's watching you. And if she is, smile!" he added, giving me a nudge. 

I nodded slightly and started across the room towards me desk near the window. A lot of kids were already in their seats waiting for Ms. Wiggins to finish writing on the board. Here goes, I thought as I reached my seat, taking a deep breath and glancing towards Jana's desk. At first she was flipping through her notebook, but then just as I was about to give up and sit down, she glanced up and right at me. This time, I gave her my biggest smile. She looked slightly surprised, but she smiled back and I thought her cheeks looked a little pink. I could easily have looked at her a little longer- she was so pretty with her dark hair and eyes... and I really did like the sweater she had on, a simple light blue one that contrasted really nice with her coloring- but at that moment Ms. Wiggins called the class to order. I slid into my seat still smiling. Ok, so maybe Scott was right. Whether I really wanted to admit it or not, I definitely liked Jana.


	3. Scott

SCOTT

"Randy's a riot, isn't he?" I said to Mark Peters as we stood by our lockers at the end of the day. 

"Hm?" Mark murmered, not even turning from his locker where he was rearranging his books. 

I crossed my eyes. "Hellooo, earth to Mark. Come in, please!"

He jumped at my tone and shot me a look. "Hellooo, I'm here. I'm listneing to you." 

"Well, you weren't a minute before," I replied, shutting my locker door and moving closer to it so I wouldn't get runover by kids streaming past. I peered at him closely. "What's up with you today, anyway? You've been really out of it." 

He shook his head. "Nothing. Nothing's up. I've just got some things on my mind, that's all." 

When he didn't offer anything else, I shrugged and picked up my backpack. "If you're sure you're okay..."

"Positive," he said quickly, slamming his locker door with a bang. "Now, what were you saying?" 

I shrugged again and smiled. "Nothing much. I was just commenting on how funny Randy is." 

Mark stared at me blankly. "What?" 

I groaned. "How funny he is- you know! With this whole Jana thing." 

"Oohhh," Mark said slowly, nodding his head to show he'd caught on. "Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's pretty... funny."

I shook my head as we started down the hall. "Honestly, he's never going to get anywhere with her if he doesn't even talk to her. And right now he's barely *looking* at her!" I paused a moment. "I'd talk to one of her friends about it, but Randy would probably kill me for that."

"Yeah, don't do that!" Mark agreed. "He definitely wants to keep this underwraps. Not that I blame him." 

I nodded. "That's the only thing if he ever DOES get the nerve to ask her out... the other guys are going to tease him like heck." 

"Out of jealousy mostly, probably," Mark said quietly, almost to himself. 

I gave him a strange look. What was UP with him? Mark's usually really loud and talkative, and today he was acting like his dog had died. And he doesn't even have a dog.

"Mark, you are definitely having problems," I said firmly as we exited the school. 

"What do you mean?" he said sharply. 

"You're acting so... different. Almost moody," I replied carefully. "Are you sure you're ok?" 

"I'm *fine*," he snapped. "So please don't ask again." 

I held up my hands in mock surrender. "Whoa, sure. Whatever you say." 

"Thanks." 

I thought maybe he'd try to explain himelf, but he didn't offer anything else. I racked my brain trying to think of an excuse for his behavior, but I couldn't think of anything. Oh well, I thought. He must just be having a bad day. I looked around the schoolyard, trying to spot Randy, and finally noticed him talking to Keith Masterson and Richie Corrierro near the swings... and right near there a small group of girls were clustered, chatting. And guess who one of the girls in the group was?

I grinned and nudged Mark. "Hey, take a look at Romeo over there. How interesting that he's standing so near the swings." The swings is usually considered the 'girls' area' since us guys spend most of our time at the baseball diamond or on the other side of the yard. I was being sarcastic of course- I knew exactly why Randy was standing there. 

Mark followed my line of sight and smiled faintly. "Wow, maybe he's getting up his nerve to talk to Jana." 

I laughed. "He probably won't for a while yet. The closest I ever saw him flirt with her was at the Halloween party a few weeks ago when he followed her around half the evening in his monster costume." 

Mark laughed at that, too. "Oh yeah- I almost forgot about that. That was pretty funny. Do you think she knew that was him, though?" 

I shrugged. "Probably. But I'm not sure." 

We were quiet another moment, then Mark said, "Do you really think she likes him? I know you said that earlier, but I wasn't sure if you meant it or not..." 

I nodded seriously. "I do. She always smiles at him and sometimes even watches him when he's not looking. And everytime he walks by her and her friends, they all look at her and start giggling and stuff. So yeah, I do think she likes him." 

Mark nodded slowly. "I think so, too. But I wanted to know what you thought." 

"I think they'd be good together," I said, just as Randy looked our direction. When he saw us, he said goodbye to Keith and Richie and started jogging over. Mark and I both automatically looked at Jana and sure enough, as he passed by, she turned and watched him for a second, then turned back to the group. 

"Yup," I said with a grin. "I definitely think this could work." 


	4. Mark

Mark

"-so then she said 'sure, I'll go talk to him. He probably forgot a homework assignment or something'," Randy whispered excitedly. The two of us were sitting way in the back of the school library during a free reading period, at a table pretty much out of Ms. Wiggin's sight. Usually we try to escape to a secluded spot where we can talk without getting in trouble, but today I almost wished we hadn't gotten the prime spot, since all Randy'd been talking about for the past 10 minutes was how he'd *actually* had a conversation with Jana today after lunch. Some conversation, I thought sourly. All he'd done was pass on the message that *Curtis* needed to see her in the media center for something, and she'd said ok. Wow, big deal. They couldn't have talked more than two minutes. But hear it from Randy and it was the best conversation in the history of the world. My heart sank. Well, if I'd had any doubts before, they were gone now. Randy definitely liked Jana. 

"Wasn't that nice of her?" Randy insisted. "A lot of girls in the class, like *Taffy*," he said pointedly, "probably would have laughed and refused to go. I mean, poor Curtis isn't the best liked person. But Jana was totally nice about going to go see him. She hardly even hesitated." 

"Wow, that is pretty nice," I said sarcastically. Whoop de doo. 

"Yeah," Randy said dreamily, not even catching my sarcasm. "She really is a super nice person, don't you think? No wonder she has so many friends." 

I just nodded, and continued to copy a section out of a biology book that I needed for science. I glanced over at Randy. He had a couple books out in front of him on Abraham Lincoln that he was supposed to be taking notes from for an upcoming history report, but so far, he didn't have any notes at all. He wasn't even looking at the books, although they were open just in case Ms. Wiggins glanced over to make sure we were working (or at least appeared to be.) I followed his line of sight to see what was so interesting and noticed he was looking at a table near the biography section where, big surprise, Jana was sitting with her Fabulous Five friends. They were all flipping through books and scribbling stuff into their notebooks, but every so often, I saw one of them pass a note to someone else, or lean forward and whisper something when it looked like Ms. Wiggins wasn't paying attention. Katie Shannon and Beth Barry had their backs to us, but we could see Melanie Edwards's, Katie Shannon's and Jana's face clearly, especially Jana's. Earlier she'd had on a white sweatshirt, but now she had it off and tied around her waist, revealing a cute pink shirt that she'd had on underneath. Her pretty hair was clipped up on the sides and her face was slightly flushed. Naturally, one couldn't help noticing how cute she was. I glanced at Randy. *He* was obviously noticing. I poked him with my pencil. 

"Hey, you better take at least a few notes, just in case Ms. Wiggins asks us to show her what we spent the period doing later," I whispered. 

"Hmm, what?" He tore his gaze away and looked over at me. 

I repeated what I'd said. 

"Oh, yeah, you're probably right," he said with a nod, flipping to a new page in his notebook and picking up his pencil. He glanced once more in Jana's direction, then picked up one of the books on Abraham Lincoln. I shook my head and sighed, turning the page in the biology book. At that moment, I felt someone's eyes on me. I glanced up and noticed that it was Jana. Well, I guess she wasn't staring at me. More like the person sitting next to me. Yeah, Randy. Suddenly she realized I was watching her and flashed me a quick, almost embarrassed smile and turned back to her work. 

I sighed again. I was just going to have to get used to the fact that that was the only way Jana would probably ever smile at me. 


	5. Randy

Randy

"-Catch the show yesterday?" 

"Wow! It's just so COOL! I can't believe someone WE know is on TV!" 

I made my way across the schoolgrounds, catching clips of people's conversations as I passed. It seemed like everyone was talking about Taffy Sinclair's role in some soap opera about Interns or somethings. A week or so ago, Taffy Sinclair had gotten this role and a couple times a week, she was absent from school so that she could go to New York for filming. I hadn't seen her at all on the show, mainly because I'd had football practice during the time it was on. And then the other day when I'd actually summoned up the courage to say something to Jana (and in front of all her friends too!), I'd asked Jana if she'd seen Taffy on the show, and Jana said her part was really small. So I didn't feel like I was missing that much. And anyway, soap operas are so dumb. It's always people running around with this person or that person and yelling and fighting or kissing. 

I knew the bell would be ringing in a minute or so and I needed to grab something from my locker so I headed into the building. Only the teachers were inside, so the place was really quiet. I decided to take a shortcut past the vending machines and just as I turned down that hallway I noticed someone a little bit ahead standing in front of one of the machines, shoving change in and rapidly pressing buttons. Whoever it was must be on a candy binge. A couple steps closer and my heart almost stopped. It was Jana! 

I swallowed quickly, realizing this was the perfect opportunity to say something to her. There was no one else around, no pressure and no reason to be afraid of being laughed at if I said something stupid. But what? What could I say? I racked my brain as I continued towards her, feeling as if the hall was echoing with my footsteps, when really, I must have been pretty quiet because Jana was still completely intent on her task. I had to wonder what she was doing getting all that junk food. 

"Don't you know all that candy will give you cavities?" The words popped out of my mouth before I could stop them. I felt my face flush, wishing I could take the words back. Jana would really start to dislike me if I started preaching to her about junk food. I quickly continued down the hall, but glanced back once to see if she'd heard me or what. She must have because she was staring at me with a shocked expression. I quickly pasted a smile on my face, hoping she'd realize I was just kidding, and kept on going. 

The minute I turned the corner at the end of the hall, I cringed. Yuck! Why do I always say such dumb things around Jana? She was going to think I was a total weirdo. 

"What's that look for?" 

I jumped at the sound of Scott's voice. I hadn't even noticed him come up to me. 

"Oh, hi," I said quickly, then shrugged, trying to gain my composure. "What look?" 

He grinned. "The 'I'm such an idiot' kind of look," he stated. "Trust me, I'm an expert at those." 

I couldn't help laughing. "I believe it." 

He smacked me on the arm and then gave me a slight push. 

"So? What happened?" 

I rolled my eyes as we continued towards the 6th grade lockers. 

"Ah, nothing really," I said slowly. "I just say stupid things sometimes." 

Scott gave me a sympathetic look. "To Jana, right?" 

I shook my head in disgust. "Yeah. It was just a stupid comment. I really have to learn to speak like a human around her." 

"Well, it would probably help if you learned to speak like one period," Scott teased. 

This time I shoved him and we were still laughing when Mark walked over. 

He raised his eyebrows, then shook his head. 

"I'm not even going to ask."


	6. Scott

Scott

Another exciting Monday morning, I thought sarcastically as I stepped outside my house and headed to grab my bike from the garage. shivered a little in the cool fall air as I pedaled to school, making a mental note to start wearing a warmer jacket. I hadn't realized how suddenly fall was starting to set in. Fall really isn't one of my favorite seasons. I'm more of spring/summer person- I don't like it when it gets bitter cold and everything gets bare. It's just kinda depressing. 

Oh well, I thought as I parked my bike in the bike rack and looked around the schoolyard for one of my friends. At least fall meant football. Randy, Mark, and I had been playing since I was pretty little, and we all really love it. It'll be even cooler next year when we're in junior high. Speaking of football, I remembered that we had a game on Saturday, our second one of the season. I sighed, suddenly even more depressed that it was only Monday. 

In past years, Mondays sometimes held a bit of excitement, because Monday is the day the school paper comes out. But this year, no one could care less about reading the paper. Curtis Trowbridge, known rather as the nerd of the school, is the editor and he can come up with interesting articles like I can ballet dance. In other words, reading the paper this year was about as exciting as a watching grass grow. I had decided earlier in the year that Curtis just wasn't good at getting news. It wasn't that nothing exciting ever happened, it was that he never reported it! Take the time I won the free-throw contest in gym class- that had been a pretty big deal and there wasn't even the tiniest mention of it in the paper. Instead, he puts in exciting articles about the new paint job in the boys' bathroom. Whoopee. 

So as I sank into my seat a bit later, I certainly wasn't impatient to be given my copy of The Sentinel. I drummed my fingers on top of my desk as I waited for it to be handed out and turned to my right to make a face at Mark. He sits a couple rows down and always gets his copy before me. If he makes a face back at me, then I'm assured there's absolutely nothing good to read in it. But when I glanced in his direction today, I noticed that he was bent over the paper, an amused expression on his face as we read whatever was on the front page. Well, that was certainly unusual. 

"Mark!" I hissed, trying not to be overheard by Wiggins. 

He glanced up and I gave him a puzzled look to show my confusion. He just grinned back and shook his head. It looked like he was trying not to laugh. Could Curtis have actually come up with something funny for once? I suddenly was aware that several other kids were snickering and giving each other weird looks as they read their copies. What the...? Now I was anxious to read it for myself and waited impaitently to get my own copy. The minute I held it up in front of me, I realized what everyone was so amused by. Right smack on the front page was an article by Jana Morgan, titled: "The Truth About Taffy Sinclair". I knew it was going to be interesting the minute I was saw that. See, everyone in the entire school, maybe even the town, knows about the life-long feud between Jana and Taffy. They are always having snits and trying to get each other in trouble. Personally, I think it's kinda funny because they get upset over the silliest things. I still don't totally understand why they don't get along. From what I can see, it seems like Jana and her friends hate Taffy because she's so pretty and does professional modeling and now is even on a soap opera, and Taffy hates Jana & company because they're all popular at school and have lots of friends while no one really likes Taffy. I personally think she's ok, but I can see why a lot of the other girls don't like her. She can be majorly snotty sometimes and never seems genuine, like she's always acting. 

So I guess I wasn't really surprised to see the article in the paper about Taffy and all the 'horrible things' she's done, according to Jana, but obviously Taffy was. She started screeching and flipping out right there in class, about what a pack of lies the article was, etc, etc, etc. I glanced over at Jana to see her reaction, figuring she and her friends would be sharing grins and laughing, and was kind of surprised that she was just sitting there, seemingly frozen in her seat. A minute later though, she was called to the office and was able to stand up and leave the room. Taffy immediatly left, too, getting a pass to the nurse's office or something, because of an 'upset stomach' and soon the room became quiet again. All over kids were struggling not to laugh, although several times somebody would let out a snicker, only to be glared down by Wiggins. I risked another glance at Mark, and he made a crazy face at me. I covered my mouth with my hand, praying I wouldn't burst out laughing. I guess I felt sort of sorry for Taffy and I was kinda surprised that Jana would write something like that, but overall, I found the whole thing extremely funny. This was one copy of The Sentinel I wouldn't be throwing out right away. 

"Randy, would you please take the attendence chart down to the office, please?" Wiggins asked, bringing me back to reality. 

"Yes, ma'am," Randy replied quietly, standing up and slowly approaching her desk. I watched him leave, surprised at his countenance. He seemed really out of it, almost upset- not at all the way I'd seen him 15 minutes earlier. Could it be because of the article? But why would that make him mad? He and Taffy got along ok, and it was no secret that she had a crush on him, but I didn't see why the article affect him so. I looked at Mark and we shared a puzzled expression. Oh well- guess we'd just have to wait till lunch to find out what was wrong.


	7. Randy

Randy

It couldn't be. It just couldn't. I stared at the paper in front of me, at the article stamped right across the entire first page. "The Truth About Taffy Sinclair- By Jana Morgan". I hadn't even made it through the first few sentances without cringing. What a horrible, mean article. How could anyone write something so mean about one of their classmates? How could *Jana*? Sweet, friendly Jana... or that's what I'd thought she was, anyway. Now I definitely wasn't so sure. I knew that Jana and Taffy weren't very good friends- in fact, they weren't friends at all- and I also knew that Taffy could be pretty snotty... but she'd never done something this mean to Jana. Had Jana really written this? I looked at the by-line again, as if it my eyes had deceived me the first time. No, it definitely said Jana Morgan. This was further confirmed a minute later when Jana was called to the principal's office. I watched her leave and noticed that she looked a mixture embarrassed, shocked, and worried. Yes, Jana had definitely written it. 

I didn't feel like reading the rest of the article, or the rest of the paper for that matter, so I folded it up and shoved it into my notebook. I'd throw it away later. I really didn't want to keep something like that around. A second later, Taffy left the room, crying and complaining, and I really didn't blame her. I certainly wouldn't have *cried* if someone had written something like that about *me*, but I would have definitely been embarrassed and upset. Again the thought echoed through my mind, how could Jana do this? I must really have had the wrong impression about her. All this time I thought... well, that was unimportant now. I was getting ready to open up notebook and wishing Ms. Wiggins would start class so people would quit reading the article and giggling among themselves, when Ms. Wiggins asked me to deliver the attendence chart to the office. I quickly stood up and walked over to her desk, glad to have an excuse to leave the room for a little while. 

I was deep in thought as I walked down the hall to the office, trying not to think about how disappointed I was that Jana wasn't the kind of girl I'd imagined, when I happend to look up and notice she was scuffing down the hall, head down, towards me. She must have gotten yelled at, I decided. Not that I was surprised or anything. I couldn't imagine the teachers and stuff letting her get away with writing an article like that about someone. Before I could look away, Jana raised her head and our eyes locked. 

"Hi, Randy," she said quietly with a small smile. 

I swallowed hard, not sure if I even wanted to reply. Instead, I just shook my head and continued down the hall. 


	8. Mark

Mark

"There he is!" I cried, sitting up straighter in my seat and pointing across the cafeteria to the door where Randy'd just walked in. 

Scott turned in his seat to look too. "About time," he muttered. "I wonder what took him so long." 

"Must have been hiding out in the bathroom or else talking to some of the other guys like he did during morning recess," I remarked, shaking my head. "I think he's avoiding us." 

"Gee, do you think so?" Scott retorted sarcastically, giving me a look. "I just want to know why. Let's get him over here. Randy!" 

Randy looked around at the sound of his name. We both started waving and motioning for him to come over so that he couldn't help but see us. He hesitated a moment, then made his way to our table. 

"Hey, guys," he said half-heartedly, sinking down into the empty chair next to Scott and setting his lunchbag down in front of him. 

"Hey, Kirwan, where've you been all day?" Scott demanded. 

"What do you mean?" 

I rolled my eyes. "You've been avoiding us since school started today. What gives?" 

Randy shook his head. "Nothing.... I..." he paused in the middle of unpacking his lunch and sighed. 

"If this weird 'tude of yours has anything to do with the article about Taffy into today's school paper..." Scott said ominously. 

I gave him a surprised look, then glanced over at Randy who had jumped at Scott's question. Wow, that thought had never even crossed my mind. Was that really what was bugging Randy? Sure, Jana had written the article, but why would that bother Randy so much? I actually thought it showed off Jana's creative writing abilities. I hadn't laughed so hard over an article in the school paper for ages. No wonder Curtis had asked her to start writing for the paper. 

When Randy didn't respond I thawked my sandwich onto the table. 

"Dude, are you serious? Is that what this is all about? You're mad because Jana wrote an article about Taffy Sinclair?" I explaimed. Scott and I looked each other and started laughing. 

Randy glared at us. 

"I can't believe you guys seriously think it's *funny*," he retorted, ripping open his sandwich bag. "That was the most disgusting piece of journalism I've ever laid eyes on." 

"Randy!" Scott cried. "That 'piece of journalism' was hilarious! What are you talking about?"

"Hilarious?" Randy repeated in disbelief. "It totally bashed Taffy. I know," he continued, holding his hand up to keep me from interrupting, "that Jana and Taffy aren't friends in the least, but that was totally uncalled for. How would you like it if someone came up with a bunch of terrible things about you and spread it around to the entire class?"

"Been there, done that," I joked and Scott started laughing. Randy just shook his head. 

"Well, joke if you want, but I don't think it's funny. At all." 

"Oh, alright," Scott sighed, rolling his eyes heavenward. "So it was a little... drastic. I'm not saying I totally agree with Jana and I wouldn't have encouraged her to write something like that, and I'm not going to, like, praise her for it or anything, but come on, Randy... it's not that bad." His expression suddenly looked worried. "You aren't, like, mad at Jana now, are you?" 

Randy looked up from his sandwich and gave Scott a perfect 'could-you-be-anymore-clueless' look. 

"Oh, Randy, come on," Scott insisted. "You can't just write her off after one little thing like this!" 

"Excuse me, but I think this 'one little thing' is quite enough," Randy snapped, attacking his milk carton. "If Jana can write something so awful about one of her own classmates, then she really can't be that great of a person. End of story." 

"Ooh, Randy, that's harsh," I remarked, shaking my head in disagreement. "I don't think you're being fair to her." 

Randy gave me a cold look. "So what are you saying? That I should just let this pass? I don't think I can do that. I don't think I'd be comfortable going out with a person who can seem so nice and then turn around and write nasty things about people she just doesn't care for." He blushed slightly, and quickly added, "Not that I was even thinking about asking her out. I just meant... hypothetically."

"No one's perfect, Randy," I replied, pointing my carrot stick at him. "If you're looking for someone who's totally sweet and doesn't let their feelings get the best of them sometimes, I wish you luck, because you're not going to find someone like that anywhere on *this* planet."

Randy shook his head. "I'm not expecting to ever find someone totally 'perfect', but someone who doesn't go around bashing and embarrassing people they simply don't like shouldn't be too much to ask for." 

"You talk like you know the whole situation between Jana and Taffy," I retorted. "What makes you so sure Jana's the one to blame? Knowing Taffy, Jana was probably provoked." 

Randy looked at me and raised his eyebrows. "When did you become Jana's number one defender?" he asked sharply. 

I blushed slightly and shrugged. "I just think you're being too judgemental," I replied weakly. 

I realized that Scott had been simply sitting there, listening to everything. When I glanced over at him, he looked at Randy and nodded.

"Yeah, ditto. That's what I think too." 

Randy sighed loudly and shook his head again. 

"Whatever. I don't really want to talk about this anymore, ok?" 

"I still think you should give her another chance, Randy," I insisted. Wow, kind of a surprise to hear myself saying that when I'd been moping inwardly for the past few days about the idea of Jana and Randy hooking up. "One 'nasty article' doesn't make her the World's Most Evil Person. Ok, so she had a lapse in judgement. She shouldn't have written something like that with the intention of embarrassing Taffy to death, but I really do think she's sorry. Didn't you see how upset she was when she was called to the office and how withdrawn she's been since then? I really believe that she would take it back if she could." 

"Look," Randy snapped, standing up abruptly and stuffing his trash back into his lunchbag. "If you think she's such a great person, then why don't *you* ask her out?" 

If you only knew... I thought, as Scott and I watched in shock as Randy stomped away from our table and out the door.


	9. Randy

Randy

I couldn't believe the nerve of Mark and Scott, trying to make me believe that the exposé of Taffy in our school newspaper had only been a 'mere lapse of judgement' on Jana's part. Honestly! Ok, so everyone makes mistakes. Unarguable. But still... how could they expect me to still see Jana as the same great person after something like that? I wondered as I left the cafeteria and headed for the outdoor schoolgrounds. What I really wanted was to just get away from that topic for awhile. I was sick of thinking about it, discussing it... I needed to keep my mind off it for a bit. 

Once outside, I noticed some of my friends over shooting hoops on the blacktopped area of the grounds. I decided that some bball was the perfect way to keep my mind preoccupied with other thoughts for awhile. As I strode over in that direction, I happened to glance over near the fence where Jana and her friends always stood together whenever they got the chance. They were there right now and I immediatly noticed Jana, standing with her face half turned in my direction. Even from that distance I couldn't help but notice how cute she looked with the afternoon sunshine on her dark hair and- 

STOP, I ordered myself, abruptly turning away and jogging over towards the other guys. I was doing just what I didn't want to do. I was done with Jana and that was that. No matter how cute she was. 

***

Easier said then done. Even though Scott and Mark quit trying to talk me into liking Jana again and were nice enough not to even bring her or her friends up for the next couple days, I couldn't keep her off my mind no matter how hard I tried. Sometimes I would almost come to the point of thinking that maybe Mark was right and I was being too hard on her... but then I would remember the article and all the awful things Jana wrote about Taffy and I would immediatly drop all positive thoughts toward Jana. And then I'd see her again in the hall, perhaps patiently listening to Curtis Trowbridge, and I couldn't help but think for a brief moment that maybe she wasn't quite so bad as I thought. With such a battle raging inside my head, it was no surprise that I suffered from some killer headaches those few days. 

And then, on the following Thursday afternoon, something bizarre happened. Something that definitely threw a new curve into things. I was leaving the Mark Twain gym after football practice, talking and joking around with Scott and Keith Masterson when I happened to glance over towards the large maple tree near the school. And surprise of surprises, there stood Jana. She was leaning against the bike rack, panting heavily, and staring right at me. Even though she didn't motion or anything, I could tell just from her eyes that she wanted to talk to me, right away. I hesitated a moment, unsure if I really wanted to talk to her (I couldn't imagine what she wanted), but I decided I might as well at least hear her out. What in the world could she want to talk to me about though? We had barely even looked at each other since she wrote that article. 

I slowly made my way over to where she was standing and stopped in front of her, waiting in silence to see what she had to say. After a moment, she shifted her weight nervously and pushed a strand of dark hair away from her face. 

"Taffy Sinclair hasn't been in school since... since the 'Sentinel' came out, and she hasn't been on Interns and Lovers, either," she blurted out finally. "My friends and I were starting to worry about her and then we found this note."

Here she paused a moment to shove a small piece of paper into my hand. I frowned as I tried to make out Taffy's loopy handwriting: "I can't go on any longer. It's just too painful to-" What the? I continued to stare at it, trying to make some sense of it, when Jana started talking again. 

"I know that I should go to her house or call her or something since I was the one who wrote that awful article, but..." her voice trailed off for a moment and I glanced up at her, still frowning, noticing that she was playing with the end of her t-shirt and nervously chewing her bottom lip. "..but I guess I'd have to say I'm scared," she added so quietly I could barely hear her. 

For a second, a felt a wave of pity for Jana. She looked so scared, standing there biting her lip and avoiding my eyes, that I almost felt like giving her a hug. But then I remembered the exposé and my anger towards her returned in a flash. 

"Look, Jana," I said coldly, so coldly Jana's head snapped up from where she'd been gazing at the ground and her brown eyes got even larger. "I used to think you were a pretty nice person. But after all those terrible things you wrote about Taffy, I'm not sure anymore." I paused a moment and glanced back down at the note, determined not to let Jana's tearfilled eyes soften me up. "I'll go to Taffy's house. Something might be wrong. But don't think of it as a favor to you."

Before Jana could say another word, I grabbed my bike and hopped on. My heart was racing as I pedaled as fast as I could down the street- half unbelieving that I had actually told Jana off like that. As much I was disappointed in her, I really didn't want her to hate me for life. But after what I had just said to her, I was sure our chances of ever dating had just gone from slim to none. Not that I had still been thinking about ever asking her out, mind you. I just meant... hypothetically. I was almost to the end of the block when I heard Jana call out behind me something about calling her when I found out something. I made a face. I really didn't want to have to talk to her again so soon, but I figured she did have a right to know what was up with Taffy. 

**

I glanced at my watch as I braked my bike in front of our garage. Wow, it was an hour later than I usually got home from football practice. I'd been at Taffy's longer than I thought. My mom was probably wondering where in the world I was... normally I would have tried to give her a quick call to let her know of a change of plans, but my brain was so frazzled by everything that I had happened this afternoon that it hadn't even crossed my mind. 

"Mom, I'm home!" I called a minute later, stepping into the front hallway and tossing my backpack down on the floor. 

Mom appeared from the direction of the kitchen and gave me a stern look. 

"Randy Kirwan, where have you been? I expected you home an hour ago!" She scolded. 

"Sorry," I apologized meekly, slipping out of my jacket. "I had to make a stop at... at a friend's house. It was pretty last minute and I didn't have a chance to call. I'm sorry I didn't let you know where I was, but it was really important that I made the stop." 

My mom sighed and shook her head. 

"Well, as long as you're ok. I'd appreciate appropriate notice in the future, though, understood?" 

"Yes, Mom," I replied with a smile, giving her a kiss on the cheek as I walked past her and into the kitchen. 

"How was football practice?" she asked, following me into the room. 

"Fine," I answered, grabbing an apple out of the bowl in the center of the table. "We're going to do great this Saturday. You and Dad are still coming to the game, right?" 

"Wouldn't miss it," she laughed, shooting me a grin. "Oh! I almost forgot! There was a call for you earlier, from a girl." 

I stopped eating my apple, trying to ignore the sly look she was giving me. "Really? From who? I mean, what girl?" My first thought was Jana, but I dimissed that possibility immediately. She *had* said she wanted to know what was up with Taffy once I found out, but she certainly wouldn't call *me* to find out. She'd probably avoid any conversation from now on with me if she could help it, I thought with a sigh. But yet, I couldn't think of any other girl who might have a reason to call me. 

"Jana Morgan?" Mom said it more like a question then an answer. 

I almost dropped my apple. 

"Really?" I repeated, trying to appear calm. "Jana called? When?" 

"Over an hour ago," my mom replied, continuing to look right at me, rather amused by my reaction. "Which is why I think you'd better call her right now. I told her you'd call her back when you got back from football, and she probably is afraid I forgot to give you the message." 

"I'll do it now," I said, tossing my apple core into the garbage can. 

"Do you want me to grab the phonebook?" 

"No, that's ok," I responded, reaching for the phone. Oh no! I cringed as soon as I realized what I'd said, and quickly added, "Uh, I mean, yes, please do." My mom has lately begun to tease me about girls and if she knew that I had the phone number of one memorized, I'd never hear the end of it. And I'd almost blown it! My brain really must be gone. 

As much as I tried to cover up my blunder by flipping to the 'M's in the phonebook and retrieving Jana's number from there, I could see my mom smiling at me out of the corner of my eye and I knew I didn't have her fooled. Great, now I'd have my mom teasing me about Jana all the time too. Too bad Jana now hated my guts. 

"Oops, there's the dryer," my mom said suddenly at the sound of a ding from the basement. "I better go take care of that."

I gave her an appreciative smile, knowing that she was partly leaving so that I could have some privacy. I also knew that that had to be hard for her, as she was probably dying to know what Jana wanted. Actually, I was kind of curious myself. If Jana had called in the last half an hour or so, I guess I could sort of understand- she might have just been really anxious to hear about Taffy. But why in the world would she have called while I was still at practice? Then it struck me that maybe she tried to *call* me first about my talking to Taffy, then found out I was still at the school and had gone there to talk to me in person. That would maybe explain why she had been so out of breath. But was it possible? I found it rather hard to believe Jana would go to so much trouble concerning Taffy's welfare. Maybe I'd underestimated her after all. 

Now I felt really bad for yelling at her. Really, as mean as writing that article was, you had to hand it to her for being so concerned with Taffy and asking me- when she knew I wasn't pleased with her- to talk to Taffy and make sure she was ok. I guess you could say I admired her for that, even though I still thought the exposé was rotten. In any case, I knew Jana wanted me to call her and tell her what had happened at Taffy's and she deserved that much at least. I bit my lip nervously as I dialed her number and listened to it ring, suddenly aware that I had no idea what I was going to say. It shouldn't be that big of a deal, but I had never talked to Jana on the phone before. And knowing how great I was with one-on-one conversations with her, I just hoped I would make it through without coming across as a *total* idiot. 

"Hello?"

My heart jumped at the sound of a feminine voice, and then I realized it was her mother. 

"Hi, this is Randy Kirwan. Is Jana there?" I asked quickly, trying to keep my voice steady. 

"Yes, Randy. Just a minute please," she answered politely, and I heard her set the phone down and call Jana. A moment later the phone was picked up again. 

"Randy?" Jana's voice came across breathlessly. 

"Yeah, it's me," I replied. Well, here goes. "I just got back from Taffy Sinclair's and she's okay, but, wow, was she mad! She said she had never been so embarrassed and humiliated in her life," I continued, recalling Taffy's furious words. "She wasn't planning to go back to school again no matter what her parents did to force her. I talked to her, though, and I'm pretty sure she'll be back tomorrow." 

I heard Jana give a sigh of relief on the other end before demanding, "But what about the note? Did you ask her about it?" 

I had to laugh, remembering the look of utter surprise on Taffy's face when I showed her the note and told her how Jana and her friends thought it was some sort of suicide letter.

"It has something to do with another soap opera part that she was going to try out for, but she's decided not to. In fact, she's not even going to be on Interns and Lovers anymore," I paused a moment, not sure how much I should tell Jana. Well, I guess she really does deserve to know everything, I rationalized. "She said her parents won't let her because even with Mr. Scott tutoring her, she's getting terrible grades. Her parents said school was more important than being queen of the soaps." 

There was a moment of silence as Jana soaked in everything I'd just told her. I wished I knew what she was thinking at the moment, but half of me was afraid of what I'd find out if I did... I'm sure she probably remembering how I told her off earlier and thinking I was the rudest person in the world. I knew I had to tell her that I was sorry for losing my temper with her, but how could I do it? What would I say? Should I even try? Would it do any good? Oh well, I thought to myself, gathering up my courage. It certainly couldn't hurt. As they say, when you reach rock bottom, there's no place to go but up. 

"And, Jana," I said finally, speaking slowly as I tried to figure out what I should say. "I'm sorry I yelled at you. What you did to Taffy was mean, but the more I think about it, the more I really admire you for trying to save her life even though you two aren't friends. Besides," I added with a small smile. "Sometimes I can understand why you don't like her. Anyway, I told Taffy what you did. I think that's what changed her mind about going back to school. And one more thing..." I took a quick breath then I plunged on, not giving a second thought to an idea that had just popped into my head. "I was wondering if you'd like to watch me in the football game Saturday afternoon, and go for pizza with me afterwards?" 

Ohmigosh! I held my breath as I realized what I'd just done. I'd actually asked Jana out. I'd probably sounded like a complete moron too! Why in the world hadn't I just stopped while I was ahead? The last thing I needed was for Jana to hang up on me, laughing her head off. 

But Jana didn't laugh. After only a brief pause, her voice came across the line, sweet and friendly, and maybe slightly amused. 

"I'd love to go to your game and then out for pizza with you," she replied and my heart resumed beating. 

"Okay, great," I heard myself say. "So, um, I'll see you tomorrow. At school." 

"Right," she said, sounding happier than I'd ever heard her. "See you. And Randy... thanks." 

"No problem, really," I insisted quickly, aware that she wasn't just thanking me for going to see Taffy for her. "Bye." 

"Bye." 

The minute I hung up the phone I let out of whoosh of air and stood there a moment, trying to fully comprehend everything that had just happened. Had I *actually* just asked Jana Morgan out? I shook my head in disbelief. Not that I was now regretting it, but to actually ask her out without giving it *serious* consideration first or at least planning out what exactly I was going to say... to be so spontaneous about something that important- that wasn't like me at all. I like to have everything planned out so that I would have a ready response for any possibility and be able to save as much face as possible . If Jana had said 'no' just now, I think I would have absolutely died of embarrassment. 

"But she didn't say 'no,' " I whispered, finally taking my hand off the phone. "She said 'yes'! She actually said yes! She *must* like me!" 

Even though my friends had been saying it for awhile, I hadn't actually considered it possible until now... because now, I had real proof. I had a *date* with her for Saturday. 

"Saturday!" I gasped, as the realization hit. Only two days... not even two days really, more like one and half. Oh my gosh, that left me, like, no time at all to prepare. Ok, at least I knew what we were going to do (have pizza together- how hard could that be?), but what were we going to say? I'd never been alone with Jana before, unless you count several *very* brief episodes, one being the extremely embarrassing candy-bar-incident. I cringed. If I said dumb stuff like that on Saturday ("Don't you know the phosphorous in coke destroys your bones?"), I could count on this being my *last* date with Jana too. 

"Oh, you're off the phone now," my mom said suddenly, coming into the kitchen. She gave me a puzzled look as she removed some ground beef from the refrigerator. "What's the matter? Why are you just standing there? I hope nothing's wrong." 

"No, nothing's wrong," I answered, aware that a smile was starting to slowly spread across my face. "In fact, everything's great." 

Mom raised her eyebrows at me, a smile appearing on her face too. 

"Ok, Randy," she laughed, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the counter. "Time to tell your mother what all you've been up to this afternoon." 

"Nothing! Really!" I exclaimed, spreading my hands wide. "Just... just..." 

She kept staring at me. I sighed, knowing it was pointless to keep her in suspense much longer. I was eventually going to have to tell I was going out with Jana on Saturday anyway. I had no idea what exactly her reaction would be to that. A horrible feeling swept over me as a terrible thought suddenly came to mind. What if *Mom* said 'no', that I wasn't allowed to take Jana out? We'd never actually talked about my dating before, but I really didn't see how she could object. It wasn't like I was asking Jana to marry me- we weren't even *that* great of friends... yet. I hoped to change that soon. And anyway, the way my mom was always teasing me about girls, it wouldn't make sense if she got upset over me asking one out. Ok, so I should have probably checked with her first for permission, but there hadn't been time. I hadn't even known till the last second myself that I was going to ask Jana. It had just happened. But what on earth was I going to do if Mom *did* refuse to let me? How would I tell Jana? I would throw myself into Bridgeport Lake first before I told Jana I couldn't meet her for pizza Saturday because I wasn't allowed. 

I left my post next to the phone and slipped into one of the kitchen chairs, trying to figure out what to say first. Mom must have realized it was important because she came over and sat down across from me, giving me an encouraging smile. 

"Mom," I began slowly, carefully picking my words. "What would you say if... I mean, would it be ok... would you mind if I, um, I," I took a deep breath. Just say it! I ordered myself. "If I went to Mama Mia's on Saturday after the game?" 

Ok, at least I was on the right track. 

She gave me a surprised look. "Randy, of course not. You always go there afterwards with your friends. I thought that it was a tradition or something." 

"Oh, yeah, it is," I replied quickly, flushing as I realized I needed to quit avoiding the truth of the situation and stuttering like a moron. "But see, well, I kind of asked, like, someone to go with me." 

My mom smiled knowingly. "Like, a Jana kind of someone?" 

My face still felt red, but I gave a sigh of relief. There, she knew now. "Yeah, exactly. I know I didn't ask you about it first, and I'm sorry, but it happened kind of fast, and she said 'yes', so please don't tell me I can't go! It's really important and if you say 'no' I'll die, I really will." 

"Whoa, whoa!" Mom laughed, holding up her hands. "Honey, why would I say 'no'? I think it sounds like a great idea. Jana's certainly a sweet girl and I've always thought highly of her. You two will have a great time." 

I almost collapsed with relief. "Thanks, Mom. I really appreciate it, you have no idea." 

She smiled, getting back on her feet. "Oh, maybe I do. So," she continued, turning on the stove and placing the ground beef onto a frying pan. "When did we get interested in Jana? I thought there was 'no one at school' that interested you?" 

"Don't even start," I retorted, standing up and making a face at her. I knew I better get out of there before I had to tell my mom every detail of the last several weeks. And as most of it was embarrassing, I really wanted to avoid the subject as much as possible. At least for now. 

"Oh, you're no fun," she teased, making a face back at me. "You're going to have to tell me how your date goes, though," she insisted. "Moms have to know about that sort of thing, it's part of our job description." 

"Right," I laughed. "If anything exciting happens, I'll be sure to let you know." 

"'Anything exciting happens?'" Mom echoed. "What's the matter, honey? Are you afraid you're not going to have fun?" 

"No, not exactly," I fudged. "I guess I'm just kind of worried that I'll screw it up somehow. You know, say something really dumb. Jana already probably thinks I'm a weirdo, and if I blow it on Saturday, I'm done for." 

"Oh, Randy! I'm sure she doesn't think that! Why in the world would she?" Mom cried, turning from the stove where the ground beef was starting to fry. "You're interesting, friendly, and thoughtful. Just be yourself and I guarantee you'll both have a great time." 

"If you say so," I sighed, turning to leave the room. 

"I do. And if you're really worried, consider talking to some of your friends. Maybe they'd have some advice for you." 

I laughed out loud. "Ask one of my friends? What good would that do? None of them have ever been on a date before either."

"Really? You're the first one?" My mom cried, looking at me again and grinning. "Randy, how exciting!" 

"Oh, please," I groaned. "Try nerve-racking. I don't want to be the first one! I want someone else to go first so I can learn from their mistakes. Now I've got to be the one to screw up." 

"Don't be silly," Mom scoffed. "You're not going to 'screw-up and that's final. Now, go get changed and come back down so that you can set the table for me. Dinner will be ready in half and hour." 

"Ok," I replied a bit absent-mindedly, my mind already switched back to the subject of figuring out what Jana and I were going to talk about. Of course, she was a girl, and girls were better at getting conversations going than boys, but *I* had been the one to ask her, so it was probably up to me to come up with some different ideas. And all I knew right now was that they better be a whole lot better than discussing the correlation between cavities and candy bars.


	10. Scott

Scott

Friday morning before school started, I posted myself next to the shool's front gate, keeping a watchful eye out for Randy. I was absoultely dying to talk to him and wanted to make sure I caught him the minute I saw him arrive. Yesterday after football practice, when we were getting ready to leave, Randy had suddenly walked off to talk to Jana Morgan who had shown up out of nowhere, and then he'd abruptly jumped on his bike and left without even saying 'bye' or at least telling us what Jana had wanted. I'd seriously debated calling him last night, but decided it would be better to just wait and talk to him in person today. I couldn't imagine what in the world Jana had wanted to talk to him about that looked so urgent, or what she could have said to make him take off so suddenly, but I knew it had to be interesting and I wanted *all* the details. I just hoped Jana hadn't tried to apologize and he'd been a jerk blown her off. I was still convinced that he and Jana would be perfect together and if he'd totally blown any future chances of the two of them ever going out, I was going to have to seriously give him a peice of my mind. Unarguably, it was great that he was such a nice guy that he didn't like to see Jana and Taffy waging war on each other, but you can't be unreasonable either. Everyone makes mistakes and everyone deserves a second chance. I vowed to make Randy understand this- I'd been avoiding the subject all week in fear that he'd blow up again, but I realized now that it was more important for me to take a chance at risking his anger if it meant convincing him to see that he needed to forgive Jana. 

"Hi, Scott!" 

I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of Randy's voice cheerfully calling my name. I looked around and noticed him coming up the street on his bike. He hopped off once he got closer and walked it the rest of the way to where I was standing. 

"What's up? Are you waiting for someone?" He asked, glancing around. 

"You, actually," I replied cautiously at Randy's happier-than-usual mood. Ok, at least he wasn't in a *bad* mood. 

"Me?" He laughed, pushing his bike past me and onto the schoolgrounds. "What for? Is something wrong?" 

"You tell me," I answered laconically, falling into step next to him. 

"What is wrong with you today?" Randy asked, giving me an exasperated look. "Would you quit with riddles and start talking like a normal human being?" 

"What did Jana want yesterday?" I demanded abruptly, deciding to ignore his comments. 

"Huh?" 

"When she wanted you to come over and talk to her after football practice yesterday afternoon," I insisted, rolling my eyes. "You know... then right after you left in a hurry on your bike and without a 'I've gotta go now' or anything? I've just been extremely curious as to what Jana wanted to discuss that made you race off." 

"Oh, that," Randy said eagerly with a nod. "Wow, you're not going to believe this, Scott." He paused in front of one of the trees in the yard and glanced around to make sure no one was in earshot. I stepped closer as he lowered his voice and began talking excitedly. "Get this, ok- you know how Taffy hasn't been at school since Monday and we thought maybe she was just doing a lot of filming in New York? Well, apparently, Jana and her friends started watching the soap opera- whatever it's called- this past week and noticed Taffy wasn't on the show. So they started to wonder if she was just staying home or what, then they found some note in Taffy's handwriting that sounded kind of like the start of a suicide note, so they freaked out, thinking Taffy was so upset about the exposé that she was getting ready to kill herself-" 

"Whoa," I gasped. Randy glared at me for interupting him before continuing.

"But anyway, none of them were brave enough to call Taffy and see if she was ok, so Jana thought maybe I would be willing to go to her house and find out what was up, which is why she came down to school and was so anxious to talk to me when we came out of the gym." 

"So did you go to Taffy's?" I asked, still trying to soak in everything Randy had been telling me. 

"Yeah, I went," he replied, half grinning. "And she was there, still mad as a hornet and definitely embarrassed, but not anywhere near killing herself, that's for sure. She said she wasn't planning on coming back to school, but I told her how it was specifically Jana who was worried about her, and I think she'll actually be back today." 

"Really?" I glanced around the schoolyard to see if I spotted Taffy's bright blond hair, but didn't see any sign of her yet. It was still pretty early though. 

"Yeah." 

I noticed Randy had that huge grin on his face again and I had a feeling I wasn't hearing all that there was to this story. 

"So, then what happened?" I pressed. "Have you talked to Jana again since you went to Taffy's? You know, to let her know that Taffy was ok?" 

"Yeah," Randy replied with a nod. "I called her when I got home. She was definitely relieved."

When he didn't add anything else, I decided to press my luck. 

"So, maybe Jana isn't so evil after all?" I questioned slyly. "Maybe there *is* still a kind bone somewhere in her body?"

Randy gave me a look. "Ok, so I was a little hard on her," he sighed. "I suppose you're never going to let me forget that. I still think she used bad judgment writing that article and I won't lie and say I wasn't disappointed in her... but," he paused a minute, then shrugged, a smile breaking over his face again. "You have to admit, it *was* pretty cool of her to be so concerned about Taffy. She didn't have to try and make sure Taffy was ok. She could have just sat back and done nothing, telling herself she was probably just overreacting and Taffy was perfectly fine. I guess you'd have to say I really admire her trying to sort of make things right." 

Now it was my turn to smile. 

"Wow," I laughed as we walked the rest of the way to the bike rack. "And here I thought I was going to have to spend all day trying to come up with some way to get you to forgive Jana. It looks like you two got that all worked out on your own, though." 

"Yeah..." Randy's voice trailed off and his expression suddenly went from elated to nervous. 

"What's wrong?" I demanded, confused at the abrupt change in countenance. 

"Scott, I have to tell you something," he confessed, slowly sliding his bike into the rack and locking it. He bit his lip as I waited for him to go on. "You aren't going to believe this..." 

"Try me," I challenged, crossing my arms over my chest. 

"Promise you won't make fun of me," he pleaded, giving me a wary look. 

"You know I wouldn't do that!" 

He gave me another look. 

"Ok, ok," I sighed, holding up my hands in surrender. "I *promise*. I won't tease you, no matter what. Happy? Now tell me what you're so worried about before I have to beat it out of you!" 

"I-asked-Jana-out-yesterday-on-the-phone," he replied so quickly and quietly that I wasn't sure I heard him right at first. We both stood there silently, looking at each other for a minute. 

"Are you serious?!" I cried finally, my mouth dropping open. "No way!" Randy grabbed my arm and jerked me closer to the wall. 

"Shut up!" He hissed, glancing around the schoolyard to see if anyone had overheard my outburst. "I kind of didn't want to announce it to the world, if you don't mind!" 

"So, what? Are you embarrassed to go out with her?" I hissed back, putting my hands on my hips. 

"No, of course not," he retorted, copying my stance. "I just...I just don't want everyone to know... yet. I mean, they'll find out soon enough... The longer I can go without getting teased within in inch of my life by the other guys, the better, thank you very much." 

"Yeah, I guess I can see your point there," I laughed, picturing the reactions of some of the other guys in our class when they heard Randy had actually asked someone out on a date. All I can say is, he better *really* like Jana. 

Suddenly I realized Randy hadn't told me anything *about* this date. "So, what are you guys doing, anyway? Like, when are you guys going out?" 

"Tomorrow, after the game," Randy replied, looking nervous again. "We're going to Mama Mia's." 

"Ah, so you wanted to have your first date in front of the whole class?" 

"Don't remind me!" Randy groaned. "I'm worried enough as it is! I wasn't even planning to ask her out, really," he admitted. "It just sort of popped into my head and I then I said it outloud. I didn't have time to think about it or anything. At least she said 'yes'." 

"You actually thought she would turn you down?" I scoffed. 

"Considering how I told her off after she asked me to go to Taffy's," Randy muttered. 

"What?" 

"Nothing, I don't want to talk about it right now," he replied, waving his hand in the air. "I'm more concerned with tomorrow and what in the world we're going to talk about." 

I laughed. "*You're* worried about coming up with conversation? Trust me, I don't think there'll be a problem." 

Randy glared at me. "Ha ha. This is a lot different then talking with *you* or Mark or any of the other *guys* and you know it," he insisted. "I have no clue what stuff Jana is interested in." 

I rolled my eyes. "Isn't that kind of the point of spending time with her? But if you're really so worried about it, well, you shouldn't be. She *is* human, you know. There's stuff she likes, stuff she doesn't..." 

Randy wrinkled his nose. "So you're saying I should ask her about her favorites?" 

"Well, yeah, but you have to use a certain technique. I mean, you can't just be like, 'so, hey, what's your favorite food?' You definitely don't want to be real blunt like that," I stated firmly. 

"So how should I say it?" Randy asked, looking confused. "What other way is there?" 

I couldn't believe how clueless he was. Honestly, I certainly didn't consider myself on expert on this sort of thing, but there did seem to be a lot I could improve Randy on. 

"Randy, my friend, we have a lot to talk about," I said, throwing my arm around his shoulder. "But don't worry- by the time I finish giving you some advice, you'll be totally ready for tomorrow and everything will be a breeze. Trust me."


	11. Mark

Mark

"So what would *you* do? I mean, under normal circumstances I'd totally forget it, but now that he's completely given up on her and moved on, do you think it'd be ok if I asked her out?" 

I shifted my position on the workbench while I waited for Matt to answer. It was Thursday evening and I'd decided to talk to my older brother, Matthew, about the war that'd been raging in my head ever since Jana's expose and Randy's disgust towards her. I'm always going to Matt for advice on stuff like sports, but this was one of the first times on the subject of girls. I wasn't even sure I should trust his advice on this sort of thing, but he *was* a junior in highschool so he had to know something. When I ask Matt for any sort of advice, though, I have to be prepared to take everything he says with a grain of salt because he likes to joke around as much as I do and it can be a real pain to try and get him to be serious. That's why I decided to confront him while he was doing what he was doing right now- working on his car. It always takes up the majority of his attention so he doesn't have any brain power to come up with witty remarks. 

"Well, I don't know," he said after a pause. He was peering into the engine of his car which had taken to smoking from time to time as of late. "Unless you're 100% positive he's moved on, I wouldn't risk it. You may feel pretty sure that he's over her now, but I think it's really too soon to tell for sure. I think I'd wait a bit, if I were you." 

"I wasn't talking about asking her out *tomorrow*," I sighed, rolling my eyes. "I just met in the, well, sort of near future."

Matt was quiet again for minute as he fussed with oil cap. "Darned thing," he muttered. "Mark, hand me that bottle next to your arm, would you? Thanks." I waited while he worked with the engine for a moment, knowing he'd answer me in his own time. And he did. "I don't know, Mark," he repeated finally. "I guess that would be ok. It's just hard for me to really say because I don't know how much Randy liked her- Jana, you said?- in the first place. And I certainly don't know his real thoughts. He might not be as over her as you believe." 

"He is," I insisted. "He practically bit my head off at lunch the other day when I tried to defend her. He never looks at her at all anymore and if we so much as mention her name in passing... I really think he's through with her." 

"Well, you would know better than me," Matt conceded. "Do what you think is best, but if you want my honest opinion, you should wait a little while. Even if he is through with her, he still might not like it if he suddenly finds out that you- one of his best friends- likes her. Think how you'd feel." 

"Maybe a little betrayed, I guess," I admitted with a sigh. "Ok, I'll wait a while. I just don't want to lose my chance again." 

Matt looked up at me and grinned. "This must be some girl." 

I nodded. "She's so cool, Matt, I wish you could meet her. She's just really, really sweet and I know she feels bad that she wrote that article now. I don't know why Randy can't see it." 

"It's hard to say- maybe he built up some totally perfect idea of Jana in his head and couldn't take it when he realized she didn't completely live up to his ideal. It's kinda sad, but it happens." He pointed a wrench at me. "Just beware of that yourself." 

"I will," I promised, hopping off my perch. "Thanks, Matt. I appreciate that advice." 

"Sure, anytime." He waved at me with his wrench before turning back to the car. I walked slowly out of the garage and into the house, still thinking about my predicament and trying to decide how long I should- or could- wait before I told my best friends that I liked Jana. 

***

The next morning I took extra time getting ready for school. I had meant it when I said I'd wait a while before letting Jana know I liked her, but I figured it couldn't hurt to start 'easing my way in'... you know- start talking to her more, even if it was just a little comment here or there, so that when the time came to finally ask her out, it wouldn't be such a surprise. I was sure right now that Jana had no clue I liked her. Heck, she probably forgot I existed half the time. Well, I was going to change that. 

Taking longer to get ready meant getting to school later, and by the time I braked my bike in front of the bike rake, the yard was already full of students. I took my time locking my bike, casually glancing around to see if I could spot Jana. She and her friends have a little spot that they like to gather at every morning to talk in private and I figured that was where she'd be now. But when I happened to glance towards the front door of the school, I actually glimpsed her walking up the front steps with Curtis Trowbridge, who was talking a mile a minute. I had to smile a little at that. Curtis has the biggest crush on Jana and it seems like every other time I turn around, he's talking to her about something. She's pretty nice to him though, which I have to give her some credit for. Curtis is really an ok guy, I like him, but talking to him for too long, too often has a way of making your eyes glaze over. I continued to watch while Jana stopped in front of the glass doors and said something to Curtis before giving a quick wave and disappearing inside. Glancing around the yard and not seeing Randy or Scott, I decided that maybe I'd follow Jana in and see if I could catch up with her. Just to casually say 'hi' while no one else was really around. 

Once inside the school, I saw Jana down at the other end of the hall, apparently heading for the 6th grade lockers. If I walked fast I could probably catch up with her... I was mentally rehearsing exactly what I planned to say when a voice behind me nearly made me jump out of my skin.I whirled around to see Scott striding up the hall towards me. 

"Geez, Scott," I muttered. "Next time try calling my name a little louder, ok?" 

"Mark, I've been looking for you all over!" He said excitedly, ignoring my remark.

"I just got here," I replied starting to walk again. Jana had disappeared from view and I gave a sigh as I realized I could just forget catching up with her now. 

"You're not going to believe this!" He cried, falling into step next to me and shaking his head. 

"What?" I demanded, starting to feel my curiousity rise. What could have happened since I saw him yesterday at football practice that could generate so much excitement?

"Well, you know how Randy's been all mad at Jana, right?" he began, tossing a look over his shoulder as if to make sure we weren't being followed. 

I give him my best "duh" look. He shrugged quickly then hurried on.

"Well, this morning I figured I was going to try again to make Randy forgive Jana- you know, make him realize that everyone makes mistakes, yada yada yada. Ok, so I'm waiting by the front gate when Randy rides up on his bike and, wow, you aren't going to believe this!" He laughed, shaking his head again. 

I had a bad feeling about where this was going. 

"What?" I demanded, shaking his arm. "Could you cut the dramatics and just spit it out?" 

"He asked her out, Mark! Here I thought I was going to have to pratically brainwash him to get him to even like her again and I find out that he's actually asked her out for tomorrow!" 

I felt my mouth drop open as I came to a dead stop in the hall. 

"Ok, I'm all for miracles," I said finally, trying to fully comprehend what Scott had just said. "But I have to ask, *how*? As of yesterday afternoon he wasn't even looking at her!" 

Scott immediatly launched into some long story about Jana thinking Taffy was going to kill herself over the expose and Jana coming to school to get Randy's help and Randy visiting Taffy then calling Jana and somehow deciding to suddenly ask her out... I don't know. I started getting majorly lost about halfway through but the overall result was clear: Randy had decided Jana wasn't so bad afterall and he still liked her enough to actually ask her out. For tomorrow, after our football game. I hoped the shock and, well, disappointment, I felt wasn't as clearly printed on my face as it felt. 

"Wow," I said as we started walking again.

"Yeah," Scott agreed, still grinning. "I can't believe it- it's almost too bizarre. I"m really glad though... I knew he'd come to his senses, I just didn't think it would be like *that*." 

"I guess," I replied, then turned my head to look at him. "I have to say I am a bit surprised that Randy is the first one of us to go out with a girl. I always figured it'd be you." 

I probably just imagined it, but it almost looked like Scott's face clouded over for a minute. But it was so fleeting, it might never even have happened because the next moment he was smiling again. 

"Oh, well, you never know," he said. "I'm actually kinda glad it's not me. Now we get to let Randy screw up first." 

He laughed and I forced a chuckle too. 

"Now, don't tell him I told you about all this, because he'll probably want to tell you himself. I just didnt want you to fall down dead with shock," Scott said as we approached the locker area. 

"That was probably wise," I agreed with a small smile. 

"Yeah, so- oh, here he comes!" 

I turned to see Randy coming down the hall talking and laughing with Keith Masterson. As they walked towards their lockers, they passed Jana who was standing at Beth Barry's locker with Beth and Melanie Edwards. They all stopped talking and watched Randy and Keith walk by, then looked at each and started grinning. I rolled my eyes and sighed. I guess I had to be happy for Randy too, but darn it, sometimes I couldn't help but be annoyed with him. There was Jana apparently thrilled that Randy had forgiven her and asked her out when he'd been sticking up his nose at her for the past week. If it'd been me, you can bet Jana wouldn't be so ready to forgive and forget me treating her like that. Some people have all the luck.


	12. Randy

Randy

I'd never been so nervous before a game in my life. 

"I'm going to blow it, I'm going to blow it," I muttered nervously, over and over, as I got into my football uniform in the locker room Saturday afternoon. 

"Would you shut up already?" Mark complained from down the row a little ways. He balled up the T-shirt he'd been wearing earlier and threw it at me. "You're starting to make *me* nervous." 

"Sor-ry," I muttered, sticking my tongue out at him and tossing his T-shirt back. "Pardon me for worrying that I'm going to make a total idiot of myself in front of- of..." 

"'The babe I'm totally crushing on'," Scott teased in a high-pitched voice that somehow was supposed to resemble mine, as he walked over from his locker in the next row. 

He broke up laughing as he ducked the shoe I aimed for his head. 

"Don't get mad at me!" He cried. "You know it's true!" 

"Shut up," I snapped, feeling my face heat up. Even if it *was* true, it didn't mean that Scott had to announce it to the entire locker room! Everyone would know soon enough that I'd asked Jana out for today and then I was going to have to figure out some way to put up with all the teasing. 

"Hey, take it easy, man," Scott said, slapping me on the shoulder. "We're just kidding around. I don't blame you for being nervous, honest. All I can say is maybe just try not to think about it and pretend she's not there..." 

"Maybe she won't be," Mark piped up. "Maybe she'll forget or something and not even show." 

"Not helping," Scott warned, shooting Mark a glare as I felt my stomach turn. I hadn't even considered that! What if she did forget, or just decided not to come? As nervous as I was, I realized that I definitely wanted her to show. I knew I'd be really disappointed if we didn't get a chance to hang out today... even if it meant I'd never hear the end of it from the other guys. 

"I was *just* kidding," Mark sighed, tying his shoes and standing up straight. "Come on, let's go. It's about time for Coach's pep-talk." 

10 minutes later, we were jogging out onto the field. It was a bit cold out today, but it was sunny with not a cloud in the sky, so the bleachers were pretty full. As I got into place for our warm-ups, I quickly scanned the crowd of faces, trying to spot Jana. I saw her almost right away, sitting near the top of the middle section with her best friends. She saw me at almost the exact same time. She *did* come! I couldn't help the huge smile that spread across my face that got even bigger when she smiled right back. It looked like everything between us had really been patched up, too. Suddenly, as much as I like playing football, I wished the game was already over. It was funny, though, how just having her in the audience affected my playing. Usually I play my best in the first half but this time it was like I was on a high the whole time and almost seemed to do better in the second half. I wondered if it had something to do with all the nervous energy pumping through my body as I watched the clock tick towards the end of the game and The Date. 

"Great game, Randy!" 

"Yeah, three touchdowns- way to go!" 

I smiled appreciatively and gave a chin up gesture to my teamates congratulating me as we headed for the locker room at the end of the game. I glanced over my shoulder once more before leaving the field and noticed that kids were pouring out of the stands, most likely heading for Mama Mia's. I really couldn't see Jana now through the crowds and I hoped she remembered to wait for me to change. That would be so weird if I had to go to Mama Mia's by myself then try to find her there. I high-stepped it to the locker room and got cleaned up in record time. Water from my speedy shower was still dripping off my hair and onto the back of my shirt when I gathered up my stuff and left the locker room with Scott and Mark. 

"Well, good luck, buddy," Scott said, slapping me on the back. "Just remember- the worst thing that could happen is that you'll find out she's a total brat or something and that you have nothing in common to talk about and end up sitting there staring at each other and then never even looking at each other after today." 

"Great, thanks," I muttered, giving him a shove on the arm. "Now I feel *so* much better." 

"Just trying to help," Scott laughed, dodging another swipe and turning to go. He and Mark were also going to be at Mama Mia's but they were obviously not going to walk over with Jana and me. 

"You'll be fine, Randy," Mark called over his shoulder as he hurried after Scott. "Just try to relax and have fun. She's probably as nervous as you are." 

Yeah, sure, I thought shooting Mark a quick smile then heading for the bleachers where Jana had agreed to wait for me. The only thing Jana could be nervous about was hoping I really had completely forgiven her over the whole expose thing. (Which I had.) She always seemed so easygoing around people, I just couldn't see her being really nervous about something like this, but then you never know. I just hoped I could remember all the 'tips' Scott had given me the other day. Not like I'm sure I totally trust everything he says- what personal experience is he drawing from?- but most of what he'd said was pretty much common knowledge, so... 

I slowed down a little as I neared the bleachers, scanning the area for Jana. The stadium was totally empty now and quiet, except for the fall wind blowing some litter around. I immediately spotted Jana sitting by herself at the end of the bleachers on the closest row to the bottom, her arms wrapped around her legs and her chin resting on her knees. She was intent on watching an empty popcorn box blow across the field and didn't even see me approaching until I was almost next to her. I noticed that her cheeks looked pink from the cold and her hair windblown. I hoped she hand't gotten too cold waiting for me. I had tried to hurry. Funny, I thought, how some people can be sitting out in a chilly wind for 15 minutes and still look cute while other people (like myself) just end up looking totally blown apart. 

"Hi, Jana," I said cheerfully, deciding to push pointless thoughts out of my head and get a move on. "Thanks for waiting." 

She looked up, startled, and then smiled back, climbing down from her perch. 

"That was a really great game you played today," she said, shoving her hands into her pockets and looking up at me. I didn't realize that she was, like, 3 inches shorter than me. Most of the girls in our class are about my height. I kind of liked the way she had to tilt her head to look at me. "And those three touchdowns you made were super." 

I felt my smile widen and I hoped I wasn't blushing. 

"You really think so?" 

"Sure," she replied matter-of-factly as we started walking. 

"Playing football sure makes me hungry," I said, which was definitely true. I hadn't eaten anything since a quick bowl of cereal hours earlier. I just prayed that my stomach wouldn't start growling. "I can't wait to get that biiig juicy pizza." Suddenly it occurred to me that I had no idea what kind of pizza Jana even liked or if she even really liked pizza. Of course she likes pizza, I rationalized. Every normal kid in America likes pizza. But what if she liked something weird on it, like anchovies? I couldn't even stand the sight of them, let alone the smell or taste. What if that's what she wanted to order? "What kind of pizza do you like, anyway?" I asked.

"Deep dish, pepperoni, green pepper, and mushroom pizza," she replied without skipping a beat. 

You could have knocked me over with a feather. I couldn't believe it!

"You're kidding," I gasped, almost coming to a complete stop in the middle of the sidewalk. "That's my absolute favorite! I order it every time I go to Mama Mia's." 

"You're kidding," she repeated, looking at me with raised eyebrows. "Most kids I know won't go anywhere near green peppers or mushrooms." 

"That's there tough luck," I laughed. "They don't know what they're missing." 

I looked at her and smiled and she smiled back. I felt my heart start to beat a little faster as I suddenly had a feeling this date was going to be more than ok and that I was really going to have fun afterall. Jana and I liking the same kind of pizza was definitely weird, but it was a good weird. Kind of one of those 'meant-to-be' weird things. I looked at her out of the corner of my eye as we approached Mama Mia's and saw that she was still smiling. I wondered what she was thinking right now. 

Another weird thing happened when we walked into Mama Mia's but I don't know if I'd particularly consider it a good-weird thing. Truthfully, it made me uncomfortable. Odd as it may sound, the minute Jana and I stepped into the packed pizzeria, it was like time almost froze for a second. Kids at tables all over the place stopped talking and eating and looked at us. Then, a breath later, they turned back to their own buisness and things looked normal again. It was so quick and so strange I wondered if maybe I'd just imagined it. Shaking my head a little to get rid of the thought, I suddenly heard someone calling my name. 

"Hi, Randy!" 

I paused a moment and turned to see Taffy Sinclair waving cheerfully from a booth where she was seated with Mona Vaughn, Scott, and Mark. 

"Oh, hi, Taffy," I replied, taking a couple steps towards their booth, aware that Jana was following me, a reluctant look on her face. 

"Why don't you sit here with us," Taffy continued, tilting her head to the side and flipping her hair almost into Mona's face. "We can squeeze in one more." 

Right, I thought, trying not to laugh. Did she really think I'd be like, 'oh sure, ok!' and sit down, leaving Jana by herself? Besides the fact that it was a dumb thing for Taffy to say, it was also pretty rude. She obviously was going to great pains to make Jana realize she wasn't wanted. I thought that was kind of mean for her to do since just two days earlier Jana had been trying to save her life. Talk about a short term memory. Maybe there was something to people always saying the blondes are airheads. 

I glanced at Scott and Mark who were sitting across from Taffy and Mona and both were apparently struggling to keep straight faces. Mark actually looked slightly embarrassed, although Scott looked more like he was trying not to burst out laughing. He kept glancing at me then at Jana and winking. I wondered if he hadn't even heard Taffy's comment. 

I was trying to think of a polite way to turn down Taffy's offer without making either girl mad, when suddenly Jana spoke up. 

"Look, Randy," she said, putting her hand on my arm and smiling widely. "There's an empty table over there!" 

I followed her gaze and noticed that a couple of older guys were leaving a table across the room. 

"Great, thanks anyway, Taffy. See you later," I replied quickly, shooting Jana a quick smile and trying not to show her how flustered I was that she was still holding onto my arm. I gave Taffy's table a final smile and a nod, trying to ignore Scott's silly faces, and followed Jana across the room. The table was actually smaller then most of the others, capable of holding four people but definitely better suited for just two. I tried to act calm as I sat down and slipped out of my jacket, feeling my palms start to sweat as it suddenly struck me that we were finally sitting alone and our date was officially started. Now came the hardest part- what do we do now? Obviously order the food first, I thought and was glad Jana and I had discussed our favorite type of pizza on the way over so that I'd know just what to order. And when the waitress asked us what we wanted to drink, Jana smiled at me when we both said 'coke' at the same time. I smiled back, pleased to find we had something else in common. While we waited for the pizza we engaged in silly small talk like how the weather was changing so fast and the amount of homework we'd had lately. Gross, we're starting to sound like two old people, I thought frantically, thinking how our conversation was drawing comparisions to the ones my grandma and the ladies in her bridge club have. It was time to change the subject, move onto something more exciting. For one thing, I still hadn't learned anything new about Jana- besides the fact that we liked the same kind of pizza and soda- which I felt was my number one priority. I could talk to *anyone*, really, about how cold it was getting and the boring book we had to read for History. So the minute we started tearing into our steaming pizza a little bit later, I decided to take action. 

"What's your favorite type of animal?" I asked, surprising even myself a little at how out-of-the-blue I said it. Jana, who had been right in the middle of taking a drink, coughed a little as if the soda had gone down the wrong pipe and grabbed a napkin. I felt my cheeks turn slightly pink as I suddenly realized I'd just broken one of Scott's first "No-No's in Dating". According to him, you were supposed to be much more subtle when making attempts to learn more about a girl, none of this straightforward questioning. I rather hoped that Jana didn't follow Scott's way of thinking and didn't see me as a weirdo now, and she seemed not to by the way she casually replied. 

"I love dogs but we aren't allowed to have any in our apartment building." 

"Dogs are my favorite, too," I remarked, stirring my drink absentmindedly with my straw. "I have a dog named Heidi and she loves to play. I'll bet you'd really like her," I added, thinking how there was no one on the planet who couldn't like Heidi, my family's keeshond. We'd had her since I was five years old and was one of the nicest animals in the world. People always seem to like her right off the bat after simply seeing her because she's so beautiful. 

I read the pleased look in Jana's sparkling amber eyes and from that moment on, it was like any remaining nervousness was gone. For the next half hour, we hardly took a breath we were so busy asking each other questions and comparing favorites. 

"What's your favorite thing to do in the summer?" Jana asked, leaning back in her seat and tilting her head to the side. 

"That's easy," I replied with a laugh. "Go to the beach. I love going to the beach- someday I want to learn how to surf." 

"Me too!" Jana cried, her eyes lighting up, as if they could really get any brighter. "That's one of my all-time dreams. I sort of know how to body board but that isn't the same, you know? What about amusement parks?" She asked, practically in the same breath. "I love the beach too, but I could spend a week straight at an amusement park." 

"Yeah! Same here," I agreed, nodding my head. "I go to Adventure Land like 15 times every summer. My favorite thing to do is-" 

"Ride the rollercoasters," we both said at the same time, something we'd already down about 10 times. My cheeks were actually starting to hurt from smiling so much. At one point, we were right in the middle of discussing the evils of onions and brusselsprouts when Jana suddenly looked sharply over her shoulder and then popped up out of her seat. 

"Um, I have to, well... I'll be right back," she said quickly, shooting me another smile and then dashing off across the room. I raised my eyebrows at such an unexpected exit and started to watch to see where she was going when I was distracted by Scott abruptly coming up and sliding into Jana's seat. 

"Hey, Kirwan, how's it going?" He asked, leaning foward and folding his hands on the table, a grin on his face. "It certainly looks like you two are having fun." 

"Scott!" I hissed, glancing in the direction Jana had disappeared. "What are you doing? Get out of here- she'll be back any second!" 

"Calm down, calm down," he laughed. "Don't worry- I'm not going to stick around. It just looked like a good time to make a quick check in." 

"Well, it's not a good time," I insisted, rolling my eyes. "I don't want her to come back and see you sitting here. Are you done eating already?" I asked, hoping to drive him back to his food. 

He gave me a funny look. "Duh, we've already been here over an hour, man. I've been done eating for quite same time. I guess you guys have been too," he commented, glancing down at the empty pizza pan. 

"Over an hour?" I repeated increduously, and looked at my watch. Wow, he was right! I couldn't believe it had been that long already. It was like I'd totally lost any concept of time while Jana and I had been talking. 

"Yes, it's been that long," he said with a knowing grin. "My, you have been having fun, haven't you?" He swung himself up out of the seat and tossed a crumpled up napkin at me, still grinning. "Let's just make it clear that you aren't allowed to let Jana take the place of your two best buddies, you understand? We've been friends too long to be pushed out of the way by a girl." 

"Don't be ridiculous," I muttered, feeling my face heat up. I tossed the napkin back at him. "Now get out of here before she comes back. I'll talk to you later, ok?" 

"Right," he laughed. "Talk to you later. Have fu-un!" He added in a singsong voice then turned and hurried to catch up with Richie Corriero and Keith Masterson who were just leaving Mama Mia's. I shook my head in disgust, then felt anxiety wash over me as I realized that if this was the kind of teasing I was getting from one of my *best friends*, what were the other guys going to say? I glanced around the room and even though it wasn't half as full as it'd been earlier, I remembered how everyone seemed to stop and stare at Jana and me when we'd come in together. In other words, everyone must have realized we were on a date and I closed my eyes at the thought of what was coming to me on Monday. But it's worth it, I reminded myself. Look at the great time Jana and I had been having- I couldn't remember the last time I'd had so much fun. And it was so cool how we had such parallel interests. 

"Hey, are you sleeping? I didn't think I was gone that long!" 

My eyes flew open at the sound of Jana's teasing voice. She was back from wherever she'd gone and was sliding back into her seat, a wide smile on her face. I grinned back. 

"Hours," I replied in mock disapproval, deliberately shaking my head. 

"Right," she laughed, rolling her eyes. "More like 5 minutes. I think you just don't know how to count." 

"Hey, do you have any idea how many *hundreds* of seconds are in five minutes?" I protested. 

"No, how many?" 

"I was asking you," I returned, trying to keep a straight face. "I can't count, remember?" 

She burst out laughing and I felt my heart swell. It was really true that one of the greatest feelings in the world was having someone laugh at one of your jokes. No wonder Mark's such a happy person all the time- he always has people cracking up. 

Jana and I easily slid back into our conversation of "Likes/Dislikes", making me totally lose track of time again. I finally noticed a good bit later that we were the only ones left in the place and that not only was our pizza gone, but we'd even finished off the pieces of ice in our drinks. I figured we'd better get out of there before we started chewing on the napkins or something. 

We kept a steady conversation going, too, as I walked Jana home, and I was actually pretty disappointed when we reached Jana's apartment building. I'd ridden past it several times on my bike and was surprised at how close it suddenly seemed to Mama Mia's. She paused a minute as she started to walk up to the entrance and turned around to smile at me. 

"I had a really good time today," she said, playing with the strings on her jacket.

"Me too," I replied sincerely, returning her smile. Talk about worrying over nothing- Jana was about as easy to talk to as my mom and I'd known my mom a whole lot longer. Speaking of my mom, I couldn't wait to tell her how things had ended up turning out. She was going to be thrilled and probably wouldn't be able to resist saying, "I told you so!" 

A chill wind suddenly swept through and I saw Jana shiver a little. Immediately I felt bad that I was keeping her out in the cold and I quickly took a step backward. 

"Well, see you on Monday," I added, giving a quick wave. 

"See you," she echoed, nodding her head in return. 

As I turned away and walked down the street back towards my house my mind kept going over everything we'd talked about today and how cool it was that we had so much in common. I couldn't believe that a couple of days ago I'd been ready to totally write her off- what an awful mistake that would have been. I had a weird feeling in my chest that this was definitely not the last time I'd be having so much fun with Jana- and this feeling was *definitely* good-weird.


End file.
